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Blythe Dolls

July 2013

July 29, 2013

I just published a little e-book of 3 cowl patterns called Cowl Play. I'll have a random drawing for 5 free e-books for those who leave a comment. You have until this Friday, August 2. The name Cowl Play was inpired by what Husband wanted to commit with 15,000 skeins of yarn lying on the bed as I tried out different color combinations. They are good for fair isle beginners and can be done in a nice snuggly slouchy size like this one, above.

or a smaller size that can be made to look quite manly in certain colors. The yarn is definitely something different for me. It is done in Kraemer Perfection, an acrylic wool mix. I learned a lot about synthetic mixes by necessity last Christmas in Dublin. Not many specialty or luxury yarns there at all! Nobody would pay for them.

When the Kraemer yarn is doubled up and has floats in the back (those strings of yarn in fair isle that run behind) it gets the nicest, cushiest feeling and is like no synthetic mix you've ever seen. Trust me - I take this stuff seriously! It also keeps the price point low for using multiple colors and there is no itchiness. Many of these new synthetic mixes are produced in Turkey and they are just a different kettle of fish than those you're used to.

So, while luxury and artisal yarns are still my main love,/addiction, for these cowls I am so happy with the Kraemer Perfection. The large one can be worn many ways although I don't recommend wearing it with a tank top in 90 degee heat!

The 3-book book is quite reasonably priced at $6.50. I hope you'll give them a try!

Make pie crust and let it cool. Smooth a thin layer of Nutella on the bottom and top with sliced bananas. Mix Nutella, sugar, cream cheese, vanilla together in your pink mixer until well blended. Taste to ensure sourish cream cheese taste is gone - if not add a bit more sugar. Spread mixture on top of bananas and top with sliced bananas and then cover and refrigerate. The bananas kind of turn brown but we ignored that.

July 25, 2013

A couple of weeks ago I saw a box of 100 postcards of Puffin Book covers. I'm sure the store could hear my brain ticking over, how I was going to plaster my wall with them, how Husband was going to have kittens over it, the usual. It's funny looking at them: We were in Lapland, home of Moomin this last Christmas, and Bubbles got "Black Beauty" for her birthday from a friend and "Watership Down" from Husband. Books are just so timeless, aren't they? I try to use a tablet reader but I always go back to the real thing.

I wanted to do something other than a flimsy poster frame since I doubted it would withstand the wear and tear of Junior and sister. Now, I'm not the first person to have this idea but after a careful web search, most people who tried this only framed about half of them because of the large size. After careful consideration and advice from the lovely people at Utrecht art store, I bought a huge white foam board - 40X60 inches! They advised this very strong double sided tape as well. How I wish I'd discovered this earlier. It's like cement! They then showed me how I could frame it with customized canvas stretchers so the foam board edge would be covered. You can see above I've done a few rows.

What's neat is that Husband and I had some of the same books growing up! Do you recognize any?

I completed another couple of rows yesterday as you can see above. I now have just three rows left, unless I decide to include some of the horizontal ones. It's pretty tedious work but fun as well. I think the hard part will be cutting the foam board as I'm not too sure how to do this smoothly. The consensus in the Casapinka household is to hang it on the bottom stairs as everyone seems to love looking at them. I'll show you the final project when it's framed and hung up.

July 23, 2013

Rhonda Fargnoli and Charlie de Weese recently launched their yarn company Coastal Colours, which makes its stunning colors out of plant based dyes. They actually grow many of the plants themselves, and for those who know anything about dyeing fiber, to achieve such resonant colors using botanical extracts is very difficult. Artists and chemists, these two. I've wanted to meet Rhonda for a while, since she gives many classes at Rhode Island School of Design, which is down the road from me. I did, however, think it best to show up to their trunk show without Junior who is deep into his armpit farting stage.

Unfortunately, some well-meaning woman at DSW recently informed him (in a tête a tête among the high heels) that if he got his hand wet it would greatly enhance the tone emitting from his armpit. You can see why I wanted to go alone, which is why on Sunday I dropped the kiddos with Husband at work and went with no entourage.

I just love the elegant packaging that Rhonda and Charlie use, which consists of seashells they found on the beach and old sailing charts from when Charlie used to sail up and down the Pacific coast. The type of ephemera that goes right onto one's bulletin or inspiration board. And the Coastal Colours pair, Charlie and Rhonda? Fun, engaging, utterly charming. I really am glad I didn't challenge them with Junior's rendition of Beethoven's Fifth, piped in Dolby surround sound from under his arm, though. Thanks for that, Husband!

After hemming and hawing for way too long, since there were many types and colors of yarns, I bought two blue skeins of flax, but it's going to be difficult to remove them from the ceramic bowl and actually knit something. It softens up quite a lot after a wash as I could see from the sample, so I'm thinking about knitting a hat or gloves, but then again, they seem to be crying out to be made into some sort of necklace. That said, I could just leave them sitting in on the mantel: Decorative fiber is second nature to me, as we know!

July 18, 2013

I'm on the final design for my knitting book but it's just so hot I can't hold all of that merino. I've thus turned to small swatches of fair isle, using scrap yarn (of which I have virtually none, ahem.)

Just when I think I can't stand a swatch, some other weird color is added, I sleep on it and the next morning I see it differently.

Stranded knitting, intarsia and fair isle will always be my first love since that was what people did when I learned to knit back in the 1980s. It was in New Zealand and nobody that I saw did lace and cables.

In fact, and forgive me if I've mentioned this, the first sweater I knitted had an intarsia typography design. With all the hopefulness of a sixteen year old knitter making her first sweater, I started the chart at the wrong end. It came out like this: TINK DNAH. Great if you have a giant mirror around but otherwise among the most frustrating knitting moments in history.

July 14, 2013

Place them in a sauce pan with 3/4 cups of sugar and 1/3 cup of corn starch.

Crush them with a potato masher, then stir constantly with a wire wisk over medium high until boiling. Once boiling, leave for 30 more seconds then remove and allow to cool. Sugar, strawberries and corn starch is all you need!

Bake your pie shell while the mixture cools. It is such a pretty red color but no artificial food coloring and no gross gelatin stuff. When cooled, put the mixture into the pie shell and cover with sliced strawberries. Add freshly whipped cream if you like.

July 12, 2013

So much busyness around Casapinka! Birthdays and lots of hot weather. Flash floods and potato printing. Note: Tough little ninja's don't want sheets with little printed houses on them. "Couldn't you put guns or knives or at least some blood, mommy?"

Today, I bring you a long time favorite artist of mine, Nina van de Goor. I just adore this platter and plate set and I'd hang it on my kitchen wall immediately if it fell into my lap. The colors and whimsical graphics make me feel so optimistic! Today is yoga and swimming at the Y followed by some more printing with the kids and cupcakes for the birthday. Somehow the kid in question managed to stretch her birthday celebration to three days! We found the most wonderful chocolate cupckake and frosting recipe using alkalinized dutch cocoa or some such thing and the entire family is crying out for them. Then, finishing touches on the 18 foot curtain I made to divide their room. I went for broke bolting in large cables to the studs (who's a stud?) and 6 simple panel curtains later, it is a very impressive split into two equally sized rooms. It's as if the wildebeest and lion have been mercifully separated although they still share legos on a regular basis.

July 05, 2013

It's so hot here at Casapinka that I need to focus on cool colors. Purples and blues are coming to me like magnetic waves. Gorgeous hydrangeas grow here in Rhode Island in July. Not on my property, but they do on my neighbor's and since I don't think she realizes she lives next to Casapinka, I'm ok, especially since I picked from the inside of her hydrangea bush.

I eat a lot of blueberries. Sometimes I even drink them. Sometimes I make my own blueberry wine.

A recently thrifted vase is living in Japan, back to it's homeland!

I recently was given an amazing present - a birdhouse by Miho. I had the calmest, most enjoyable time putting it together last night. Good design at its best. Now I - shunner of the whole animal head trend - wouldn't say no to a horse noggin in my home!

I'll show you when I've finished it's home. Right now it's just a nail and a branch. Enjoy your weekend, all. Husband and I off on a couples retreat this weekend. We managed to find babysitting and get time away to do it, so take care and have a great weekend, everyone!

July 03, 2013

Visitng a friend in NYC a couple of months ago, we came across this store in Billyburg that didn't appear to have a name. It was wall to wall estate sale, basically. Dusty "junk" and treasure as far as the eye could see. Upstairs, dusty paintings and frames that I was literally tripping over from front to back of the store. I went through every one of them and didn't feel anything calling to me until the - believe it or not - very last one. Then, there she was.

Husband calls her The Suffragette and claims she wouldn't look at the artist because her breasts were uneven! According to him, she thinks she's "all that" and doesn't have to look at the artist. I think he has the wrong era but I appreciate the storyline and his imagination. I also think that he unerestimates what savvy women have been doing for billenia (gawd, I love having a blog where I can make up obnoxious words) to even out uneven bosoms. At any rate, she's here to stay at Casapinka, in all her picketing, marching, heteromastic fabulosity and so am I, wearing my rose colored neologistic glasses, of course. I hope you like her because you'll be seeing plenty more of her as Casapinka continues to slowly evolve.